Roton Point Amusement Park remembered in Rowayton exhibition

Christina Hennessy

Updated 11:03 am, Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Roton Point Amusement Park, which operated in Rowayton, Conn., in the late 1880s to early 1900s, boasted rides (such as this roller coaster), games and plenty of diversions to keep families entertained all day. An exhibition presented by the Rowayton Historical Society revisits the park through artifacts and other objects. It will run through Labor Day 2013.
Photo: Contributed Photo

Roton Point Amusement Park, which operated in Rowayton, Conn., in...

Guests wait to board the Big Dipper at Roton Point Amusement Park. Though the coaster and park no longer exist, one can still see the platform, which today serves as the Bayley Beach pavilion. An exhibition about the once-popular park is now on display at Rowayton's Pinkney Museum in Pinkney Park, Rowayton, Conn.
Photo: Contributed Photo

Guests wait to board the Big Dipper at Roton Point Amusement Park....

A postcard shows a scene from Roton Point Amusement Park, which was a popular stop for families from the late 1880s to the early 1940s. The Rowayton (Conn.) Historical Society will revisit this once bustling attraction with "The Prettiest Park on Long Island Sound: Roton Point Park 1880-1941," an exhibition that runs through Labor Day at Rowayton's Pinkney Museum. In addition to personal recollections, artifacts and photos also are on display.
Photo: Contributed Photo

A postcard shows a scene from Roton Point Amusement Park, which was...

It was quiet on a recent visit to the Rowayton Historical Society in Norwalk, a direct contrast to the kind of din that once fueled the excitement for visitors to Roton Point Amusement Park, which gave its last rides in 1941. With its bustling midway of rides and games, its convivial picnic grove, its daring drops on roller coasters that got ever higher and faster, its carousel that featured a menagerie crafted by some of the era's top artisans and its large dancing pavilion, it could attract 12,000 people from across Connecticut, New York and New Jersey daily in its heyday.

"It originally started as a place to cool off, a bathing beach," said Lisa Wilson Grant, a lifelong Rowayton resident who heads the Roton Point History Committee. But, by the late 1880s, this popular picnic spot began to expand its entertainment offerings aided by a brisk trolley system that brought people to the site every 20 minutes and, eventually, large steamships that would ferry thousands of people to the park every day.

This summer, the historical society is hoping it will attract visitors once again. Through Labor Day, "The Prettiest Park on Long Island Sound: Roton Point Park 1880-1941" will highlight the allure of this once-bustling attraction with artifacts, personal recollections, photographs, letters and brochures. It also includes a recent cache of items unearthed after Hurricane Sandy swept through the area, including china from the site's restaurant and hotel, clay pipes from the shooting range and some glass bottles bearing the name "Roton Point."

"I always thought it was cool that it used to be here," said Grant, who also is a board member for the historical society. "But I don't think a lot of people know about it."

Roton Point was among a slew of amusement centers that once dotted the state during the late 1880s to the early 1900s. For instance, crowds would come to enjoy the rides, mechanical fortune tellers, games and summer treats at Savin Rock Amusement Park in West Haven. In Trumbull, people were picnicking and rowing rented boats across the manmade Lake High-High at Parlor Rock. At Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport they were soaring above Long Island Sound in the Sky Rocket or taking a spin in the carousel (which continues to run to this day at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo).

At Roton Point Amusement Park, steamships, including the park's own Belle Island, would line up, sometimes five abreast, at the dock ready to unload thousands of passengers.

"This would be a big deal, a treat," said society president Wendell Livingston, of the working families who would a make a day of it, some traveling several hours by train and ship to get there.

One might dare to hop onto the Tango Dip, the park's first wooden coaster. Later, the Big Dipper offered thrills and chills. The Skylark soared during the park's final years. In the 1930s and '40s, Miss America hopefuls would begin their journey with the Miss Connecticut pageants at the hotel at Roton Point. In 1933, Marion Bergeron, of West Haven, earned that title and went on to become the first Miss America from Connecticut.

There were some great nights of music at the park, too -- Cab Calloway, Rudy Vallee, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington. One could fly like Charles Lindbergh on an airplane swing ride, bump cars in the Skooter, swoosh down a two-story slide while exiting the fun house, spend time in the penny arcade or try one's luck at a game of chance. In one photo, it shows the prize was a basket of groceries.

The park passed through various hands during its run, but its last owner was Neville Bayley, who purchased the property from the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company in 1928. He oversaw its expansion, as well as its demise. The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 was the first blow, causing extensive damage to the rides and attractions along the midway. The park managed to open for the 1939 season, but bigger problems were brewing.

"It was never the same," Livingston said. "And then World War II came."

The ships were conscripted for the war effort, workers became scarcer and fuel rationing took its toll. The property was eventually sold off by 1942. Part of it became Rowayton's public beach, Bayley Beach. (The roller coaster platform remains today as the beach's picnic pavilion.) Another part is owned by the Roton Point Association, a family beach club. The private Wee Burn beach club owns another section.

Grant said even without the war, she wonders how long it would have continued.

"Times were changing," she said. "We were at the end of the trolleys and I think they were beginning to develop parking problems. It outgrew what it was originally set up to do."